Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, June 26, 2003

Contraction has cinched the talent belt league-wide. Benches throughout the league now seat former starters and players capable of breaking open games, and this notion may be most evident in the rise of the Eastern Conference.

The Storm will test this theory as its three-game, four-day jaunt back East starts today in Cleveland against the Rockers (5-5).

"With the dispersal draft and the contraction of teams, a lot of teams got stronger, that's definitely true," said Storm coach Anne Donovan, who came to Seattle this offseason after two years as Charlotte's head coach.

In the league's previous six years, the Western Conference has won every championship.

Cleveland, Indiana, Charlotte, New York and Detroit combined to go 23-32 against teams from the West last summer. This season, those same teams are 10-7 against Western Conference teams.

"The league is stronger. It's a great situation because it makes the competition better and gets peoples' attention," Storm reserve guard Tully Bevilaqua said.

Bevilaqua, a two-year starter for the now-defunct Portland Fire, is averaging eight minutes off the bench for the Storm (6-5), which stands in second place, four games behind the conference-leading Los Angeles Sparks.

Last year, the Storm went 7-4 against teams in the East while posting a 10-11 mark versus squads in its own conference.

In addition to feeling out its eastern counterparts, the Storm will continue to challenge its bench as it leaves Cleveland early tomorrow morning for an evening game in Indianapolis, finishing off the whirlwind trip with Monday night's game in Charlotte.

The non-starters, having averaged just 10 points in the previous six games, went off for 44 points and 16 rebounds against a shell-shocked San Antonio on Sunday.

"They were awesome," Donovan said of her reserves after a spirited practice Tuesday afternoon. "It was so wonderful to be able to keep them in and the lead just grew, and it was against San Antonio's starters."

Simone Edwards leads the Storm bench with four points and four rebounds in about 16 minutes of action per game, typically spelling Lauren Jackson, one of the league's hottest players with a WNBA-high 19.4 scoring average.

One of just two remaining players from the inaugural 2000 Storm team, Edwards said the attitude, in addition to the talent of the non-starters, is key to the Storm's early success.

"This is a good team. Tully, Sun (Jung), Alisa (Burras) -- they're all new. But there is one goal of wanting to win," Edwards said. "Everyone is cheering for each other, not hiding in the back saying, 'I want her to get hurt' so you can play. Everybody is fighting for minutes, but you feel the support. It comes from the top some, but there are great personalities on the bench and the ego is just not there."

With all-star point guard Sue Bird nursing a left knee injury that has been causing her pain all season, and the grind of two pairs of back-to-back games in a week, the bench will be vital on this road trip.

TIP-INS: Donovan returns to play Charlotte, her former team, for the first time Monday. "I can't say it's just another game," she said. "Watching them on tape has been difficult." Donovan took over the Sting in 2001. After a 1-10 start, she turned the team around with a 17-4 rally and a trip to the WNBA finals, where the Sting lost to L.A. ... Bird did not practice this week because of her sore knee. "She's continuing to work through it. Flying doesn't help; it swells up," Donovan said. "She's getting used to dealing with the pain."